Side by side: UI changes from Windows 7 beta to build 7057

Here's a roundup of all the changes we've noticed between Windows 7 build 7000 …

Over the weekend, I put Windows 7 build 7000 on my desktop and Windows 7 build 7057 on my laptop, and went through trying to spot as many changes between the two as I could. Although I go deeper than I did with build 7048, this is still not a comprehensive list.

There is almost three months difference between the two builds: the beta was compiled on December 12, 2008, at 2:00pm and the leaked build 7057 was compiled on March 5, 2009, at 8:00pm, so there's a lot of work to cover. This post is about tracking every noticeable visual change; although I do mention some fixes here and there, I'm mainly focusing on tweaks that are "tangible" as opposed to the thousands of bugs that have been fixed. As before, the screenshots are lined up like this: build 7000 on the left and build 7057 on the right, or build 7000 above and build 7057 below. Also, remember that the "Send Feedback" link has been removed in build 7057, so that's an easy way to remember if there is a window title bar visible.

Before I get going, I want to underline the by-far most important change in build 7057. It's not a critical bug fix; it's not even a brand-spanking-new feature. It's the expiration date. As you can see in the screenshot above, build 7057 expires March 1, 2010. What this means is that Microsoft is getting very close to readying the Release Candidate build. Very close in fact, but as you'll see, it's not quite there yet.

Getting Started

You may only see this dialog window once or twice, but Microsoft wants to get it right. The Vista-like (Aurora) background has been replaced with a light blue one that we've seen on Windows.com. All the text has been changed as well. "Find out what's new in Windows 7" is now "Go online to find out what's new in Windows 7" and "See more new features" is now "Go online to learn more." Furthermore, the "Learn more about new Windows 7 features" has been replaced with two bullets:

Discover new features that can help you be productive, stay safer, and have fun

Find out everything you need to know about setting up your computer

The new HomeGroup icon makes an appearance here as well, and "Download Windows Live Essentials to communicate, share and publish" has been simplified to "Go online to get Windows Live Essentials." Finally, the "Make text and other times on your screen larger or smaller" has been renamed to "Change the size of the text on your screen" and the "Go online to Windows.com to get help setting up your computer" icon is gone. The Getting Started icon in the Start Menu also has similar changes: "Make text larger or smaller" is now "Change text size," and "Discover Windows.com" has been removed.

Start Menu

The Start Menu button had a huge change from XP to Vista: the "Start" text was removed and the Start Button "orb" was created. That orb has been tweaked in Windows 7, and the above screenshot shows that Microsoft has opted for a more vibrant look between build 7000 and build 7057. From top to bottom, the different buttons are based on how you are interacting with the orb: normal, mouseover, and clicked.

Again, this is important because it is what you first see when you install Windows 7. These are the icons from top to bottom:

This one I can't quite put my finger on, but for whatever reason Microsoft decided to put Computer and Games together in build 7057, moving it up from its previous grouping below. Also, Devices and Printers has swapped places with Default Programs. The shutdown menu button looks identical between the two builds when you aren't interacting with it, but upon mouseover or click, there's a distinct white border around the button in build 7057. You may also notice that "All Programs" is no longer bolded. If you go in there, you'll see that the Extras and Upgrades folder has been removed, including the web links inside: Small Business Resources, Windows Marketplace, and Windows Web Site

While not turned on by default, you can add two more entries to the Start Menu in build 7057 that you could not in build 7000: Homegroup and Downloads. You can now also set the maximum number of jumplist items.

Taskbar

This screenshot just shows that the default number of jumplist items for 7057 is 10. New items bump older items off the list.

Build 7057 allows you to pin items to programs that aren't associated with that file extension. For example, you can pin a bitmap image to Notepad and even though Paint is set to open it by default, it will now open in Notepad. Many have told me they find this very useful.

Just like in the Quick Launch bar in previous versions of Windows, build 7057 lets you hold down the shift key when dragging an item over a program's icon to have that program open it (think "Open with").

This change is hard to spot at first, but if you look closely, the notification color has been made slightly brighter; Microsoft says this is because users complained they were missing when an application wanted attention.

Finally, here's a very odd tidbit I noticed. If you rename a program and then pin it to the taskbar, it will be renamed back to its previous name. For example, I took UT2004.exe, renamed it to bla.exe, and then pinned it to the taskbar. On build 7000, when I right clicked on the taskbar icon, the program was called bla, but on build 7057, it was UT2004. Yippee for minor changes!

Personalization

Did you want more themes? Done. Windows 7 has now been moved under "Aero Themes" (renamed from "Windows Themes") and "Ease of Acess Themes" has been changed to "Basic and High Contrast Themes." Also, all the themes now have names.

Did you want more user pictures? Done. There are now 24 more pictures to choose from.

Did you want more wallpapers? Done. There are 14 more backgrounds.

Did you want more screensavers? Too bad. Say goodbye to Aurora, Windows Energy, and Windows Logo.

Fonts

The default view for icons has changed from Tiles to Large icons, and there are now 131 fonts instead of 133 (Browallia New and Cordia New have been removed). Also, when you select a font, near the bottom, a few options have been removed (Family, Font type, Date created, and Date modified), others have been added (Category and Font embeddability), and they've all been shuffled around.

Sound

A new Sound icon, and in the Communications tab, the drop down menu has been changed to a bullet list of options.

Originally posted by Stutes:The first page is wrong, it is possible in 7057 to add Videos to the start menu - it is the very last item in the customize menu, though, and it's easy to see how you missed it.

In both builds. Thanks for the comment, I've removed that mention from the article.

quote:

Originally posted by RandomFool:I like these comparisons but would I think it would be better to do an incremental comparison and only include the changes since the previous build or new changes you've found.

Yeah, I understand what you mean, but I'm working towards a beta > RC comparison post, and that's something that is rather annoying to do if I had incremental build posts

I had a few questions about the new build I was hoping someone may be able to answer.

1) Is there still an issue with a click delay on start menu items when their jumplist is animating? In build 7000 start menu entries that have jumplists are unresponsive to clicks during the time the right half of the start menu is going through it's animation. This problem gets exacerbated if you reduced the global hover time (to make superbar thumbnails appear faster).

2) Are there less superbar z-order issues? In build 7000 the superbar frequently drops below other windows and I need to right click on it and select properties, then cancel out to bring it back above the other windows.

3) Is it possible to move pinned items below recent items in jumplists? IMO, my pinned items are of more importance than recent items so it seems more logical to have them near the bottom, closer to my mouse, rather than at the top.

"If you haven't heard yet, yes, the UAC issue has been fixed in build 7057."

Typical that we have to hear over and over again of yet another MS "flaw", yet when they turn around and fix it or prove that there was none at all to begine with, everyone is too busy sucking apple's or google's cock to notice.

The originally lenthy post about that UAC flaw, with pages of comments, has NOT been updated, and I havent seen anything else about it.

If I havent heard? Shouldn't I have already, at least by you guys???

"I was going to take back the apple technica comment..." why? A five page image post about beta->RC changes? This is hardly unique or worth the ass-kissing over. It more sad that anyone is getting happy for a site lik Ars doing this... should be be alowd to expect it?

However, have you noticed thta it is no longer possible to reduce the size of the wallpaper picture? In 7000 it was possible to select "center" my preferred format which allows me to choose a black background so that all icons are clearly visible. This seems not to be available in 7057

Also whilst Paintshop Pro X2 worked almost perfectly in 7000 (except the scanning function) in 7057 it is not possible to print - paper just runs through the printer

Have they made an update to the Window Color and Appearance dialog box (Display Properties->Appearance->Advanced in Windows XP) from build 7000? It was identical to previous versions of Windows but for some additional "Items" to modify and new text. I was hoping they had at least changed the dialog layout to something less obnoxious and placed it somewhere easier to get to than hidden as a tiny option under CPanel->Appearance and Personalization->Window Color and Appearance->Window Color and Appearance

Frustratingly the first Window Color and Appearance is reached by a link under Appearance and Personalization titled "Change window glass colors" and the second dialog box I want to reach, the old Advanced Appearance dialog, is reached by a link called "Advanced appearance settings" but the title of the dialog is also "Window Color and Appearance". I'm baffled how all this is supposed to fit together. Somewhere along the way the plan shifted and the sub-sub-sub-menus lost their original intentions as settings moved around, I think.

I can't understand why they can't design and finalize it once and for all rather than moving countless things here and there in every build and removing options and icons. Features removed from Windows 7 beta on Wikipedia anyone? Control Panel applets which were all consolidated in XP have been strewn all over the place in the links on the left pane in Windows 7. Which is easier to remember? "Windows Update" or "Set your computer to receive updates automatically".